from Rising Tide Seattle Facebook
In solidarity and with strong resolve Rising Tide Seattle peacefully occupied tar sands hauler Omega-Morgan’s office in Fife, WA today. Over a dozen Rising Tide’rs protested Omega-Morgan’s megaload shipment bound for the Alberta tar sands. The group attempted to deliver a letter to Steve Powell, the Fife office’s general manager, but no Omega-Morgan employees would identify themselves. A receptionist insisted that there were no employees in the office that day, despite the half a dozen people in Omega-Morgan shirts standing around the office.
Though employees refused to interact with Rising Tide Seattle supporters the action shut down work at the office for at least an hour and resulted in several panicked calls to the head office in Oregon. This action follows last night’s lock-down by regional Rising Tide’rs to equipment trying to pass through the Port of Umatilla, which delayed the shipment for a second time.
Rising Tide Seattle informed Omega-Morgan that as long as they continued to ship tar sands equipment they would face escalating and broadening resistance throughout the region.
Neither Omega-Morgan nor the Oregon Department of Transportation have consulted with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs and this company has a history of bringing dangerous shipments through native territory without consent. Last August an Omega-Morgan megaload faced three nights of blockades as it attempted to travel across the Nez Perce reservation in Idaho. 28 members of the Nez Perce Tribe were arrested as part of the protest, including 8 members of the Tribal Council. An Idaho judge has granted an injunction blocking further loads along highway 12 through the Nez Perce Reservation.
Even with such strong community resistance and environmental devastation, Omega-Morgan continues facilitating the most ecologically destructive project on earth. We shall not let this devastation continue and this action is just the start of Rising Tide Seattle’s resistance to the megaload shipments. They shall not pass!
